It is known to provide swivelling castors on furniture which is frequently moved, such as the type of furniture used for carrying large objects or numerous products which are to be transported together. As example of such furniture may be mentioned the tables used for television sets, radio telephones, teletransmission equipment, apparatus for computer terminals, etc. In all known furniture of this kind, however, the castors are placed underneath hollow or solid bars which are substantially parallelipiped in form. This has the disadvantage of making the furniture unstable in that it is a if perched on these castors.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
One of the objects of the present invention is an article of furniture having a base fitted with castors so designed that the furniture will be more stable than hitherto and virtually as stable as the same article of furniture not standing on castors, that is to say resting with its base directly on the ground.
It is another object of this invention to propose such furniture in which the aesthetic qualities are improved without significant increase in the manufacturing costs.
These objects and others which will be apparent from what follows are achieved by an article of furniture having a base fitted with castors, which base is formed by at least two substantially parallelipied bars each having an upper web and a lower web forming, respectively, the upper and lower surfaces, each bar being fitted with at least one castor, the said furniture being characterised according to the present invention in that each bar also has an intermediate web parallel to the upper and lower webs and situated between them and having a portion cut away for the accommodation for each castor, each of these castors being attached to the intermediate web.
Each bar preferably has such a cut-out portion situated near an end.
This end is advantageously closed by an end piece with tongues extending into the space between the upper and the intermediate web. This end piece may have a nut which is attached to the two tongues and into which the castor is screwed to fix the castor to the bar.
According to a preferred embodiment of the present invention the piece of furniture has a base consisting of two parallel bars each having a portion cut away at each end. Such an article of furniture advantageously has two upright columns each attached to one of the bars and connected to one another by at least one connecting element and supporting a tray or the like at the top.
Each upright column is preferably attached to its bar by at least two barrel screws, the lower and the intermediate web of each bar having two corresponding apertures substantially of the same diameter as the barrel of the screw while the upper web has an aperture of substantially the same diameter as the threaded part of the screw, and the distance between the upper and the intermediate web being at least equal to the height of the barrel of the screw.
Each vertical column is preferably flat in cross-section and preferably has two tubular longitudinal elements each of which can cooperate with the threaded part of the corresponding barrel screw.
Each connecting element is preferably attached to each upright column by at least one barrel screw having a barrel which is at least equal in length to the thickness of the column less the thickness of one wall of the column. The barrel of the screw therefore does not pass through that wall of the column which is opposite to the one to which the connecting element is fixed but bears against the thickness of that wall. A tray may be fixed to such a connecting element by screws cooperating with screw tapped recesses in the connecting element.
The tray at the top of the vertical columns is advantageously fixed to the columns by screws cooperating with the longitudinal tubular elements provided on each column. This tray may also have a bar serving as handle on one side. This bar may be, for example, a U-shaped tube or section with its base protruding from the tray and its arms forming lateral boundaries at the opposite ends of the tray.
An article of furniture according to the present invention may have two vertical columns each having at least two vertical grooves on the surfaces facing each other, these grooves having a cross-section which is partly closed in the region where it opens out on to the surface of the column.
The cross-section of these grooves is preferably polygonal or elliptic.
The description given below, which does not constitute any limitation, should be read with reference to the attached figures.